Microsoft Surface 3

Lightweight. Full HD display with touch and pen support. New Intel Atom x7 processor offers better performance than other Atom-based competitors. Long battery life in our tests. Better-than-average speakers and webcam. Includes a full version of Windows 8.1, with free year of Office and OneDrive.

The Surface 3 offers a welcome price break from the pricey Microsoft Surface Pro 3, and it's well built, offers a full version of Windows, and boasts impressive battery life. But in a crowded field, a solid tablet that relies heavily on expensive accessories falls short of top marks.

In 2013, the first Microsoft Surface was seen as Redmond's answer to the Apple iPad, proving that Windows could hold its own against the iPad and a flood of Android tablets. Then the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 was built to prove that a full-featured Windows tablet could replace your laptop without missing a beat. Microsoft's newest tablet, the Surface 3 ($599, 128GB), is an excellent, more-affordable follow-up to the Surface Pro 3, but in a market that's filled with inexpensive Windows tablets—like the Editors' Choice Toshiba Encore 2 Write—a well-made tablet at a moderately affordable price isn't enough to take the top prize.

Design The Surface 3 will look familiar to anyone who has seen another Surface tablet, whether it's in person, or in Microsoft's kaleidoscopic new TV spots. In fact, it looks just like the Surface Pro 3, but a bit smaller, with the same magnesium-alloy construction and bare-metal finish. The 10.8-inch display is obviously smaller than the 12-inch Surface Pro 3, but it's actually a better size in some ways. The Surface 3 measures 10.52 by 7.36 by 0.34 inches (HWD), and weighs 1.4 pounds, making it lighter and easier to tote than its Pro counterpart, and putting it in the same weight-class as the Toshiba Encore 2 Write.

The built-in kickstand around back lets you prop it up on a table for laptop-style use, or even on your lap, though the edge of the kickstand still isn't that comfortable when balanced on your knees. Unlike the fully adjustable kickstand on the 3 Pro, however, the Surface 3 opts for a three-position hinge that is easier to manufacture. The three positions offer a serviceable range of screen angles, but the lack of fine adjustment diminishes what was one of the best features on the Surface Pro 3.

The display is covered in edge-to-edge glass and boasts 1,920-by-1,280 resolution, with full HD quality at a 3:2 aspect ratio. The screen has a slightly less oblong shape than most tablets, which have a 16:9 aspect ratio. This shape works better for viewing Web content in landscape orientation, and is far more comfortable to hold in portrait orientation. Touch capability is a given, but the display also supports the Surface Pen, with a built-in digitizer providing excellent handwriting and drawing capabilities.

If you look closely, you'll see two slits on either side of the display, where the edge-to-edge glass meets the magnesium chassis. This is a pair of front-facing speakers that offer better sound quality and volume than the side- and rear-facing speakers you see on most Windows tablets. Dolby audio enhancement further improves the audio output, and when I tested the speakers with a trailer for Terminator: Genisys, the sound was fairly clear and the volume got loud enough to fill the room. That's a refreshing change from tablets with low-volume, distortion-prone speakers.

Features The tablet is outfitted with one full-size USB 3.0 port, a mini DisplayPort, a micro USB charging port, and a headset jack. Hidden underneath the kickstand is a microSD card slot. All of the ports are found on the right-hand side of the system, though along the top edge you will find physical buttons for power and volume control. On the bottom edge of the tablet is a magnetic docking connector for attaching the Surface 3 Type Cover.

One quirk is the new micro USB charging port, unlike the typical micro USB cables you use to charge pretty much every other device, Microsoft includes a cable with an awkward 90-degree plug end, which manages to be bulky despite using one of the smallest connectors available. And it never seems to seat securely when plugged in. This stings, especially since the first Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 have hassle-free magnetic connectors for charging.

You get two cameras, a front-facing 3.5-megapixel webcam, and a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera for photo and video. The front camera is actually much better than the usual 1- and 2-megapixel cameras included on tablets and laptops, and works very well for applications like Skype and Google Hangouts. The rear camera takes sharp, clear images, with very good color quality. Unlike past iterations of the Surface, the rear-facing camera on the Surface 3 is not set at an angle. While this is helpful for the tablet-photographer-tourist, it means that when using the kickstand, the tablet and camera will point at a downward-sloping angle.

For wireless connectivity, the tablet is outfitted with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. Additionally, the Surface 3 has several tablet-specific sensors built in, with an ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetometer.

For storage, our review unit is equipped with a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), though the $499 base model only offers 64GB—putting it on par with the Acer Aspire Switch 11 (SW5-171-325N), which also has a 128GB SSD, but only half the capacity of the premium-priced Surface Pro 3 (256GB SSD). By comparison, the Toshiba Encore 2 Write gives you 64GB, while the E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 has only 32GB of onboard storage. Microsoft also throws in 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage (free for 12 months).

Aside from the $499 base model (with 2GB of RAM, and the aforementioned 64GB storage) and our $599 review unit (with 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage), both of which come with Wi-Fi only, there are two other configurations that Microsoft plans to offer, both of which will add LTE capability: a system with 2GB of RAM, and 64GB storage, and one with with 4GB of RAM and 128GB storage. Pricing for the the two have yet to be announced as of this writing.

The Surface 3 comes with Windows 8.1, the full 64-bit, x86 version. It's a far cry from the recently retired RT operating system that was offered on the Microsoft Surface 2 (32GB), which looked like Win 8, but lacked full support for Windows software. With full Windows 8.1, however, you'll be able to run all of your Windows software, and even upgrade to Windows 10 later this year. Microsoft offers the Surface 3 with a 12-month subscription of Office 365 Personal, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Additional apps included on the system are the annotation app Drawboard PDF, Fresh Paint, Flipboard, and the New York Times Crossword. Microsoft covers the Surface 3 with a one-year warranty.

Accessories If you've seen any ads for Microsoft's Surface line, you've undoubtedly seen the tablet with both a keyboard cover and a pen. Microsoft presents these together because both accessories are essential to getting full functionality out of the Surface. Without the pen, the tablet loses handwriting and drawing capability; without the keyboard cover, the touted laptop-like experience is gone. Unfortunately, both of these accessories are sold separately, with no bundled deal currently available.

The Type Cover is very much like the Microsoft Type Cover (for Surface) introduced with the Microsoft Surface RT, with a similar size and shape, and the same magnetic docking connection. The new keyboard cover isn't exactly the same, however, as it also has the stiffer backing and folding magnetic flap introduced on the Microsoft Surface Pro Type Cover for the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. The narrow flap folds up, and holds in place magnetically, putting the keyboard at a slight angle for a more comfortable typing experience. The keyboard itself is slightly smaller than that of the larger Pro version, but unless you're switching between the two frequently, it's not a noticeable difference. The Type Cover has backlighting for low-light use, but it's a subtle glow that won't be noticeable if it's turned on under normal lights. The glass-surface touchpad is small, but then again, there is an easily accessible touch screen to share the clicking and scrolling duties. The Surface 3 Type Cover sells for $129.99, and is available in black, blue, bright blue, red, or bright red.

The other key accessory is the Microsoft Surface Pen, the same digitizer wand offered with the Pro 3, with two buttons near the grip (right-click and eraser), and another on the back end that wakes the tablet and launches OneNote for instant note-taking. With 256 levels of pressure sensitivity and excellent palm rejection, the pen is among the best I've used with a tablet, alongside that of the Toshiba Encore 2 Write. The Surface Pen is available for $49.99 in a selection of colors—black, blue, or red—in addition to the bare-metal version with purple buttons offered when the pen first came available with the Surface Pro 3.

While these accessories are sold separately, they don't feel like extras. The Type Cover and Pen instead feel like integral parts, which are necessary to complete the full Surface experience. Our review of the Surface 3 sells for $599, but the true total for the tablet, Type Cover, and Surface Pen is $778.98.

Additionally, Microsoft sells a desktop dock, the Microsoft Surface 3 Docking Station, which lets you connect an external display, wired network connection, and peripherals. Pop the tablet into the dock, and you've got a very usable desktop setup. Unlike the Surface Pro 3, which runs on an ultrabook-class processor, the Surface 3 uses a lower-powered Atom CPU that's less suited as a quasi-desktop. The Microsoft Surface 3 Docking Station sells for $199.99, but is not the essential accessory that the Type Cover and Pen are.

Performance The Surface 3 is equipped with an Intel Atom x7-Z8700 processor, one of Intel's new Cherry Trail models. Atom CPUs have been used in lots of new Windows tablets because the low-powered chip doesn't run as hot as mainstream laptop processors, and the low-voltage design extends battery life, making them ideal for use in mobile products. The new Atom x7 is also a step up in processing power from past Atom CPUs, but it's still sits in a lower tier than Intel's Core i3 and Core i5 processors, and it shows in our test results.

See How We Test Tablets

In PCMark 8 Work Conventional, the Surface 3 scored 1,610 points. This is higher than other Atom-based competitors, like the Toshiba Encore 2 Write (1,497 points) and the E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 (1,431 points), but lower than the Core-i3-equipped Acer Aspire Switch 11 (2,113 points) and the Core-i5-equipped Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (2,704 points). Similarly, the tablet completed our Photoshop CS6 test in 12 minutes 16 seconds, which was considerably better than the E-Fun Nextbook 10.1 (25:00), but still painfully slow when compared with the Surface Pro 3 (4:48). Relying on Intel HD Graphics (the Atom processor's integrated graphics solution) the Surface 3 ran all of our graphics and gaming benchmark tests—an accomplishment for an Atom-based system—even outperforming several competitors in some tests, but the tablet is built to support uses like streaming video, not running games.

One area where the Surface 3 leads the pack, however, is in battery life. On our rundown test, the Surface 3 lasted 9 hours 52 minutes, just a few minutes shy of the 10-hour mark. That's more than enough to leave home in the morning without a charger, and carry the tablet through a full day of work meetings or school classes without ever having to worry about losing power. The Surface 3 outlasts the competition; the Toshiba Encore 2 Write comes closest (9:03 on the same test), with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (8:55) clocking in just a bit behind. Our other comparison systems died hours sooner.

Conclusion The Microsoft Surface 3 does several things quite well, packaging the features of the Surface Pro 3 into a smaller, more affordable tablet. Some of these attributes really shine, like the premium magnesium-alloy construction, the refined design, and the mix of tablet portability and laptop functionality offered by the Surface with the Type Cover. But while there's a lot to love about the Surface 3, it's up against devices that offer similar features at lower prices, and that makes it a good product in a category with plenty of good products.

The Surface 3 is priced to compete with entry- and mid-level Windows tablets and detachable hybrid devices, but with nearly essential accessories sold separately, the real price of the tablet is much higher. The $400 Toshiba Encore 2 Write offers excellent note-taking capability, and includes the pen, so it remains our Editors' Choice. There's also a case to be made that some of the less-expensive, detachable-hybrid tablets offer a better mix of tablet and laptop functionality, and in those instances, the Acer Aspire Switch 11 offers a similar package for less, and an Intel Core i3 processor means better performance. In the end, while the Microsoft Surface 3 is a very-well-made Windows tablet, there are simply better values to be had.

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Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between Superman and Batman. This was cute when he was five, but worrisome at seventeen. Naturally, he is now a journalist, writing about technology and gadgets.
Brian has been writing professionally since 2007, and his work has appeared in business newsletters, websites, textbooks, and magazines. He earned his degree in Communications from...
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